Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

This motion is an important and timely response to a need that has been brought sharply into focus by recent events. A whistleblowers protection Bill has many applications but none more important than within our health service. Too often we have seen scandals arise because of a fundamental failure to ensure proper accountability and oversight. The hepatitis C scandal, the deaths of haemophiliacs, the nursing homes charges and most recently, the experience of patients of Michael Neary, are testimony to that failure. The publication of the report on Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda by Judge Harding Clark, exposes the latest in this line of scandals. This Private Members' motion is timely in light of that report because it offers us the opportunity of redemption. Since the report was published there has certainly been remorse shown. The women who suffered so much have received an apology from the senior medical staff of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. The obstetricians who failed in their duty to properly investigate Michael Neary's practice have expressed regret. The Tánaiste and the Taoiseach have expressed their sympathy and regret. These are all welcome words but they are only words. What the Labour Party offers in this motion is action.

Now that we know the extent of the terrible injustice that was meted out to these young women we have to go beyond simple expressions of regret and the payment of compensation. We can proceed to legislate to protect the future midwife, bank official, worker or civil servant who sees a wrong and refuses to close their eyes to it. We can act by passing such legislation and we should do so. That is the proper way to ensure accountability and it is long overdue. The Government is wriggling out of its responsibilities and this is yet again evidence of its inability to govern well even when the circumstances are so compelling.

The focus of the Judge Harding Clark report has rightly rested upon the unfortunate women patients who have suffered so much but there is another woman who deserves to be remembered. The debt owed to the midwife named as Ann is recorded by Judge Harding Clark in the following words: "If it were in the power of the Inquiry to make an award of bravery to any person, it would be to the midwife who we shall call Ann who made the first complaint to the North Eastern Health Board solicitor". The report describes the difficult, lonely route that this young midwife took in her pursuit of the truth. She was clearly isolated by her colleagues and had to persist doggedly in raising her concerns before the opportunity arose for her to speak to the solicitor. According to the report there was no forum for expressing her concerns and she was reduced to nagging her colleagues. What is striking about Ann is her courage, her refusal to lie down under pressure, her thirst for justice. What is shocking about Ann is that to this day she has never gone public about her role. To this day the women do not know the identity of their champion. "Everyone owes her a debt" says Fidelma Geraghty, a woman who underwent an unnecessary hysterectomy after her baby was stillborn:

If it weren't for her, this could still be going on today and hundreds more women could have been affected. I would love to know who she is.

None of us knows Ann's identity. There is a real danger that what is presented in the Judge Harding Clark report is regarded as of historical interest only. It should not be seen in such a light. The report points out that even in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital there is still inadequate risk management in place. It also queries the lack of scrutiny of other peripheral hospital maternity units and the need to provide a full assessment of care. We are continually being reassured by the medical professionals that what happened at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital could not happen today. Speaking frankly, I do not buy that argument. It is not sufficient to rely on the professionalism of doctors alone to police themselves any longer. Increasingly doctors at the highest level are working within teams rather than in isolation, which is to be welcomed. However, the power relationship between hospital consultant and junior staff, other medical professionals and patients, is still very imbalanced. To its credit the Medical Council has been pressing for many years for reform. Regrettably its concerns have fallen on deaf ears. It is now almost ten years since the Medical Council began campaigning for a new medical practitioners Bill and there is still no sign of it.

Even allowing for reform of the Medical Council, it is important that the role of the whistleblower is recognised and protected. There will always be space for abuse, no matter how good the system of competence assurance in the health service. The idea of the hospital consultant as God has been used to explain how Michael Neary was able to get away with his practice for so long. Doctors are never gods. They are human and subject to the same human frailty as the rest of us. Those who work closest to them can see when a doctor fails to live up to his or her Hippocratic oath in a way that may never be seen from afar.

In Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda it took an exceptional person to break ranks and an exceptional administrator in the health board to pursue the scandal into the open. To this day the person who broke the terrible cycle of pain and mutilation remains unwilling to step forward even after the publication of a report that praises her and totally vindicates her bravery. The forces unleashed by the Neary controversy over the years were powerful and destructive to the point where secrecy is the preferred option for the person whose heroism led to the discovery of a terrible wrong.

The lesson of Ann the whistleblower must not be lost. This motion is a move to recognise just how difficult it can be to speak up when others stay silent and how easily ways can be found to silence the expression of concerns in any workplace, whether in private business or in the public sphere. The need to protect individuals who stand outside of the herd and speak out should be paramount. This is the reason this motion is so important. The Government refusal to act is very disappointing.

This health service under the term of office of the Tánaiste has become more secretive than at any time in the past and is less accountable now than at any time in the past. One of the best ways to protect patients is for there to be a way of recording what happens to them, whether at health board level, through the media or in this House. This Tánaiste has been regarded in many ways as the champion of accountability but has managed to strip out all the safeguards that were in place in the health service. As has been pointed out by Deputy Hogan, we will become more dependent on the whistleblower inside the system to alert the public to the failures and the threats that may exist within the health service that is so important to all.

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